Stephens County voting complaints not being probed at state level

The office of the Attorney General of Texas is not investigating a complaint regarding election procedure in the Stephens County general election, an official with the office said Friday.

Two complaints were made regarding vote-counting procedure at the Stephens County Courthouse in Breckenridge. One complaint was submitted to Stephens County Sheriff Dan Young on Wednesday, then forwarded to the Texas Ethics Commission, Young said.

The other was received by the office of the Texas Secretary of State, also this week. An official with the secretary of state's office confirmed the complaint had been received, but could not speak to whether a formal complaint had been filed.

The complaints may stem from the presence of outgoing Precinct 1 County Commissioner Jerry Toland in the room where votes were tabulated, reported Breckenridge radio station KLXK-KROO.

According to state voting guidelines, only authorized election officials are allowed to be in the room while votes are tabulated. Thus Toland's presence in the room — pictured in a photo by an unidentified photographer that can be seen on the Lake Country Sun website (which includes news from the cities of Breckenridge, Graham, Jacksboro and Olney) — would appear to be a violation of those rules.

Terry Sullivan, Stephens County tax collector and elections official, confirmed Toland was in the room, but she said it was after votes had been tabulated.

"If you'll notice in that picture, there's a board with the totals on there," Sullivan said. "Everything was already counted and everything was posted. Yes, he was in there looking at the machine. I assure you nothing got changed."

The Precinct 1 commissioner seat was won by Ed Russell, who won the election with 563 votes to 273 for opponent Ted Goldsmith.

Toland had not sought re-election.

It also was reported by KLXK-KROO that unofficial totals posted at the courthouse were incorrect and had to be rectified.

Sullivan denied incorrect totals had been posted, saying it may have appeared that way because early and absentee votes initially were left off the counts, which were only precinct totals. After early and absentee votes were added, some residents may have thought the numbers were included twice, she said.

"Those are two different totals," she said. "Nothing was counted twice."

If residents were to contest election results, they would do so through her office, Sullivan said. As of Friday, she was not aware results being contested through her office.

The Stephens County Commissioners Court met Friday morning to canvass election results. They were approved unanimously.

Toland was not present for the meeting.

At the meeting, Young, who lost his sheriff's job to challenger Billy Wade in the election, addressed allegations that he filed one of the complaints regarding vote-counting procedure.

He told the court he only received a complaint and forwarded it to the Ethics Commission.

"I have not filed a single complaint about the procedures that night," he said Friday. "I made it clear that I had not personally made any allegations that anybody has done anything wrong criminally or civilly."